Be nice to Mikey guys he got a good lesson he knows first hand removing and changing stuff over from 1 engine to another is not a 2 hr deal even with Dan helping him the drive shaft weighs more than Mike

He is a happy camper plenty of power with no smoke he had a couple of glitches on the way home but him and Dan solved those when he called me you could see the smile on his face lol

First of all folks, the pictures Matt posted was my new fuel saving program. I got all the way from Kingman to Clifford,s using NO fuel. Thanks Coach-net.

Now for the rest of the story. Last November I was attending a Western GM Board meeting in the Kingman AZ area and when I was heading North on my way home the engine temperature skyrocketed and hit the shut off temp. After a cool down period I added coolant and of coarse tried to find out where the original coolant went. Everything was dry so I started the engine and that's when I found out that with every stroke of a piston I was pumping coolant out the overflow from the expansion tank. My 4106 had become a heavy weight water pump. I called Coach-net and towed the rig to Clifford s. It didn't take much for Clifford to determine that I was still driving around with the original 1963 engine. It had all the unwanted parts like heads, block and pistons.

The search for a replacement had begun. Dan West heard of a 8V71 with an auto trans for free however it was up in Seattle. That's no hill for a climber. Dan and I left the next day for the Puget sound. When we got there we found out the engine was not an 8V but a 6V with a VS-2 attached. As it turns out I have a neighbor that is restoring a 4517 that he drove professionally years ago. He agreed to buy the 6 for my cost of going to get it and the search started all over again.

Approx 10 years ago Dan helped a friend remove and 8V71N and installed a 92T in his Buffalo. The friend sold the engine to a collector of stuff. It sat in the bed of a dump truck in the Utah desert for the next decade. Dan's friend gave us a heads up on the location which turned out to be only 50 miles from Home. We where able to make the deal and transport the engine the 300 miles to Clifford's.

As most of you know there is several major differences in the engine combination between the 06 and the 4107A. Small stuff like the cradle' type of clutch, cooling fan not to mention the plumbing changes. Clifford warned me when we started this job that it would take quite a while to get this transition completed but I knew with hard work it would be just "nut's and bolt's". I'll tell you after 10 days of disappointment and problem after problem I became a believer. As the ad say's--- when Clifford speaks, I listen. Dan and I spent two 5 day visits at Clifford's and approx 600 miles traveling but when the smoke cleared I have one strong running 06.

Mike, you haven't quite finished the story. I am guessing overheating caused the failure, but what caused your engine to turn into a water pump, cracked head, blown head gasket, or something else? Just curious. Thanks for sharing your story, we all learn from others experiences.

Sam,I tore the engine down it looks like Mikey lost coolant and it fried the upper half as always on the GM's cracking the head and melting the O-rings I told him a year+ ago the poor thing had almost lived it's life and it was time to bring Hospice in

It wasn't worth rebuilding too me so I encouraged him to look for a later model 8v71 and he found one I was a little concerned about it setting for 10 years and had the air box drains tied into the oil pan

With every injector frozen solid I tossed the N70's and replaced those with N65's and had Mike remove the drains from the pan and install check valves and amazing it turn out to be a real good engine

I still think Mike is a little disappointed I didn't give him back the full 318hp with the 70's but he is like old like me he needs to slow down lol

I have him set on around 295 hp with no smoke a big improvement over a sick and tired 8v71 with C-60 injectors now you guys know the complete story

Except he will be back in May I want to replace the old style fuel rods with the spring loaded newer type for him nice guy that Mikey